Hi, everyone. My name is Jonah, and I used to be completely disillusioned.
I know. It’s such an easy reaction to such a ridiculous decade of idiocy and hopelessness. But I let it happen to me. Perhaps I was weak. But something about the hope and zeal in the eyes of protesters and volunteers always made me queasy, embarrassed. Why were they even trying? Didn’t they know nothing we did mattered?
For the entirety of my thinking/formative years, I’ve been under this absurd administration. I’ve spent countless nights watching returns in bleak Sheraton Ballrooms only to leave feeling dejected, empty, resolved in my belief that my guy never wins. And suddenly, the morning after Obama won, I woke up with a giddy, embarrassed feeling of having just fallen in love.
Huh. Watching the country and world unite under the same banner of joy and optimism was unfamiliar territory. After years of disenfranchisement, I had forgotten what it felt like 1) to win and 2) to feel pride in my country. Thousands of drunken revelers flooded the streets in Manhattan dancing, shouting, hugging. Is this what our hippie parents once called ‘idealism’?
In Union Square we chanted “USA! USA!” like it was now our own.
The next day at work nobody could concentrate, for good reason. I took a lunch break to walk around town blasting Bruce Springsteen and getting teary-eyed. But a friend, a more reticent reveler, sent this email to me: Yo, I'm psyched about Obama, but I'm a little bit skeptical about the overwhelming Democratic presence in Congress. The way people were celebrating last night made me a little nervous, despite my own excitement.
What? Why. Why would he say that? Of all days. This was supposed to be the day without skepticism! A holiday from apathy. Our one moment to radiate together, and he sends me this! The tone was all wrong, goddammit, wrong!
We exchanged many heated emails, came to some kind of agreement, and then went out to get drunk.
As everyone is dying to know: Why Whyroots, Jonah? While I don’t know if we young people are now actually empowered, and while I don’t think I know what "netroots" means, I know this: I believe in political intercourse. I mean discourse. That’s what I meant.
And as much as I wanted to punch my friend in the face, I was glad to spar with him over this—because at least this killjoy got the conversation going. Maybe he’s right to distrust the celebration in the streets. It’s that same zeal that once made me feel uncomfortable. It’s not good enough to feel hippie joy because Barack O’Perfect won (But isn’t he perfect? And so cool. OMG, remember that three-pointer with the troops?). We need to stay vigilant, skeptical and open-minded. I’ve endured too much heartbreak to suddenly give up all that well-earned distrust. I’m jumping off this political pendulum to keep focused, and I’m joining Whyroots to keep this exploration alive.
RSS Feed